Gruffalo creator Julia Donaldson is the new children’s laureate. She is the seventh to hold the post, following in the pen-strokes of Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen and Anthony Browne. It’s Browne, her predecessor, who urged Donaldson to champion libraries. In an open letter he wrote: “Do everything you can to support libraries – God knows, they need every bit of help they can get nowadays.”
Donaldson is already a library saving campaigner, and plans to do even more in her new post. She said: “Maybe I’ll be able to talk to the minister of culture and persuade the government to have some kind of overall plan because at the moment I feel all the library cuts and closures are very piecemeal, so I’ll do what I can.” What do you think of her appointment and plans to support libraries?
Eleanor Cains 
I heard an interview with Julia Donaldson on the radio yesterday in which she said that she aims to hold her schools’ talks in the local library – which I think sounds like a very good idea. Libraries need all the support they can get!